


A Curious Cardan

by librarian_of_velaris



Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Ice Cream, Shopping, Shopping Malls, jude brings cardan to the mall, jude takes cardan to the mortal world, literally just pure fluff and fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 09:12:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17846591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librarian_of_velaris/pseuds/librarian_of_velaris
Summary: Jude brings Cardan to the mall, and he's amazed. Oh, also he tries ice cream. A fun little drabble about two of my favorite characters.





	A Curious Cardan

Jude wasn’t sure what to do.

She thought that bringing Cardan to the mortal world would be  _fun._ A way to get him out of his element, to let her have the upper hand for once. He would be in her world, the world of dust and dirt and impermanence, and utterly at her whims. After all, he wouldn’t know where to go, what to do. He didn’t know the first thing about mortals.

Well, she was right about one thing. She certainly had the upper hand.

But…she grossly underestimated how he was going to react to the change of scenery.

He  _seemed_  prepared, she’d thought, as they crossed the isle, but as soon as the mortal lands were in view, his eyes went wide. There were buildings everywhere! Jude, of course, knew this, but Cardan, well, he’d never seen buildings quite so square, or smoke billowing from the same very buildings.

He said as much, pointing out the squares and telling Jude that the mortals had no sense of creativity. Jude sighed, but agreed. Faerie was, admittedly, a place of beauty—despite its dangers. The mortal world was…not quite what Jude would call beautiful.

_Functional._ Yes, that was the word. The mortal world was built for convenience and functionality.

“It’s just so  _ugly,_ ” Cardan whined as they landed on the grass by the nearby mall. Jude figured for their first excursion—she assumed there’d be plenty more, but she wasn’t quite so sure about that now—she’d show him the pinnacle of mortal society: the shopping mall.

Jude rolled her eyes. “Come on.”

Cardan hesitated. “It looks like a giant piece of brick. Where are the windows? Is there no sunlight? How does it stay lit without magic? Candles? I don’t understand—”

“Shut up and follow me.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him along, through the grass and towards the parking lot.

But then Cardan froze—again, and pointed ahead of him. “What are… _what are those, Jude._ ”

He sounded panicked, as though the nastiest of the faeries was staring him down. She turned, ready to fight whatever followed them here, but… “It’s a car, Cardan. An automobile.”

“I don’t understand any of those words, my darling Jude.”

“A machine. That you drive.”

“Drive?”

Jude huffed a sigh. “I’m not explaining it all to you.”

“You brought me here! I deserve explanations!”

“Cardan, this was supposed to be  _fun._ You’re ruining it.”

He put his hands on his hips. “I just want it explained to me!”  

“Fine. Fine,” she said, dragging a hand through her hair. “Cars are machines. They help you get places, like horses. But they’re made of metal and machinery. Got it?”

Cardan furrowed his brows and didn’t nod.

_I wish he could lie,_ Jude thought, ignoring his confusion and dragging him through the rest of the parking lot and to the big, glass entrance doors to the mall. When they got to the entrance, though, Cardan paused. Again.

“What is it now, Cardan?”

He raised his brows. “What is it? This world is horrifying! Cautomobiles—”

“Automobiles,” she interrupted.

“Cautomobiles, automobiles, whatever you call them! These machines look like they could kill me! That’s not to mention how terrible they must be for the land, what with driving all over it and destroying it, and now we’re about to walk into a giant block of a castle that looks like a prison not even I could imagine, and—”

“One: it’s not a castle. It’s a mall. Two: cars  _can_ kill, and they are, in fact, hurting the environment. You’re right. Three: let’s go into the mall.”

She moved to grab his hand. If she had two, she’d pull him into the building. It wasn’t as though he was stronger than here, here, not when he couldn’t use his magic.

“One more thing, Jude, and then I’ll enter the ugliest castle I’ve ever seen.”

“ _It’s not a castle. Now what, exactly, do you have to say?”_

“No need to be so mean to your king, my Jude. I simply wanted to know if I needed to change my clothes. I can see people…staring. And not just because of my good looks,” he added with a wink.

Looking around, she could see Cardan was right. People were, indeed, staring at him. At the pointed ears. The dark clothing, the charcoal swept under his eyes, the earrings that crawled up both of his earlobes, some even chained to one another. They eyed the rings adorning his finger, the several gold and silver necklaces, not to mention the gold-leaf circlet adorning his head. She hadn’t asked him to change, mostly because she figured people wouldn’t look twice. Sure, some would stare, but they’d just see a young man into body modification—the ears—and piercings.

It didn’t help that he refused to leave without the circlet.  _They have to know who’s king,_ he’d said. Jude figured it wasn’t worth arguing.

And so, naturally, some stared. But to them, he simply looked like an eccentric human, so they looked, averted their gaze—or tried to—and went on their way.

“You would look more conspicuous in human attire,” she told him. “They’ll stare, but they won’t see a faerie. Trust me.”

“So why did you have to change, if I didn’t?”

He did have a point. She always had a set of mortal clothes with her, just in case Vivi wanted to head to the mall. And changing…she hated it. Hated the way the clothing felt against her body. It was  _wrong._ All wrong. But if she showed up in one of her usual outfits, whether that be her elegant dresses or her fighting attire…people would notice. And while some would think she was some sort of Renaissance fair enthusiast, others wouldn’t get it. Cardan could be obvious, because nothing about him was subtle. Regular clothes would just draw more attention to him. For Jude, though, she was supposed to be in these clothes. So it worked, made her blend in more.

She hated it.

“Don’t worry about why,” she said, and without another word, she pulled him through the doors and into the mall.

***

Jude hadn’t heard Cardan speak for the entirety of their tour of the mall.  

She took him all around, to the department stores, to the food court, every technology store imaginable, and really, she brought him into each and every store. If he wanted the mortal experience, she was going to give it to him. Sephora, Macy’s, American Eagle, and all. Each time they passed a new location, Cardan pointed, mouth agape and eyes wide. But he wasn’t speaking. In fact, she wasn’t sure he had the words to explain what he was feeling.

After an hour of wandering, Cardan finally spoke. “What—how— _why_?”

“Mortals like to shop. Especially for clothes. And makeup. And iPhones.”

“iPhones?”

“You know that store, the one with the apple—”

Cardan’s eyes lit up. “Yes! How did they get the apple to glow! And then there were the screens you could touchand you could press those pictures and then what was that thing, the thing that captured our faces  _on the screen?!_ ”

Ah, yes. The Apple store. Cardan had been thoroughly amazed—and confused—there, trying to figure out how the iPhones worked, how a picture was taken. Truly, she’d never realized he’d never seen mortal technology.

And she hadn’t expected him to be so…interested in it. As he spoke, his excitement grew. She’d never think he’d be interested in mortal anything, but he’d surprised her before, she supposed he could surprise her now.

“I don’t have time to explain how it works—and frankly, I’m not quite sure myself. But I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“ _Enjoyed it?_ I want to go back! Let’s go!” Cardan turned on his heel and started to walk towards the glowing sign, but Jude caught him with her hand.

“How about we eat first,” she said.

“But Jude—”

“Food. I’m  _starving._ ”

Cardan grumbled something, but she couldn’t make it out. She took it as a yes, and they went to the food court.

“What do you want? We’ve got a lot of options, here.”

Cardan eyed the stalls in front of him warily, as if not trusting the food. “It’s just mortal food,” she said, “it’s harmless.”

“I…you’re sure?”

“Aside from the salt, it’s safe.”

“ _Aside from the salt._ Jude, remember, I can’t eat salt.”

“I know. That’s why I’m telling you. You need to be careful.”

“So what can I eat here?”

“Hmm.” She eyed the potential options. A pizza joint. No good. Burgers and fries? Nope, that wouldn’t do. She kept looking, and kept coming up empty. Every dish had salt in it. This wasn’t like Elfhame, but… _there._ At the end of the court she could see an ice cream shop.

Perfect.

“Follow me,” she said, and he obliged.

***

“Ice cream? What’s that?”

“Something you can eat. Now, do you want chocolate, vanilla, mint chocolate chip, coffee, cookies and cream, cookie dough—”

“Are all of those…options?”

“They’re all flavors, yes. Now pick.”

Cardan looked through the glass case at the various flavors. Then he looked to the menu. Then back to the case holding the ice cream. Menu. Case. Menu. Case. Menu. Case. Repeat.

“Cardan,  _decide,_ ” Jude hissed, “we don’t have all day.”

“I can’t! I want to try everything.”

Jude couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Fine. Whatever. She was done arguing. So she pulled some money out of her pocket, stepped up to the counter, and ordered one of everything. The employee hesitated, asking her if she was  _absolutely sure_ she wanted all of that—it was a lot of ice cream, after all. Wouldn’t she get sick? Jude just told him that yes, she wanted all of it, and yes, she was planning to share it with her friend over there. After a brief argument, he relented, and filled a tray with bowls of various scoops of ice cream inside.

Cardan took the tray from her as they sought out a booth, sitting across from one another. He stared at their purchase. “What is this, exactly?”

“Frozen flavored milk.”

“That sounds horrible,” Cardan said, squirming.

“There’s more to it than that, dummy. Just try it.”

Cardan eyed her, but she held her hands up in protest. “I promise I’m telling the truth. It’s good.” And with that, Jude took a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and ate it herself. “See? Delicious.”

Naturally, he did the same, taking a spoonful of vanilla himself but first touching his tongue to the cold dessert. “It’s cold!”

Jude laughed. “No shit.”

He still hesitated to put the spoon in his mouth, but after a few small licks of the spoon, deciding it wasn’t all that bad, he ate the remaining ice cream. “Mmm.” And then he had another spoonful. And another. Until the vanilla was gone, and he was digging into the chocolate.

“See? Not all that bad, huh.”

“Why don’t we have this in Elfhame? As King, as soon as we get home, I’m ordering the cooks to learn this recipe. I’m sick of tarts every night for dessert, anyway.”

Laughing, Jude helped Cardan eat the rest of the ice cream in the bowls, until their bellies were full and afternoon turned to night.

“Think we should call it a day?” Jude asked, guiding him towards the entrance.

“As much as I hate to say it, we should be getting back. I do have Kingly duties, after all.”

“That you do.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad you had a good time.”

“I have one last question before we go home though,” Cardan said with a mischievous grin.

“What is it now?”

“When are we coming back?”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i started thinking about cardan in the mortal world and then this happened, lmao. i'm so far in the jurdan trash can there's no coming out and i love it


End file.
